Date   : Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:36:49 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: New storage system suggestinons?

Greg Cook wrote:

>> The most powerful solution is GoMMC.
> You really have no shame, have you?

For some salesmen, their product speaks for itself.
For others, they have to speak for their product.

:-)


>> But it's not cheap. There are various other solutions that
>> are or appear to be, but offer more specific functionality,
>> which may or may not suit you now or later.
> Pathetic FUD.

"Specific functionality"?!?!?!


There are no conflicts to declare. I own neither, am not best buddies 
with either person involved, and can't think of any other reason to have 
an undue preference. I'm just going to visit the websites (using Google 
to find them) and report on what I see.



GoMMC
====
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/J.Kortink/home/hardware/gommc/what.htm

Nice little board. Looks tidy.

Features:
   * Uses an MMC card to provide storage for disc images etc etc.
   * Plugs into a ROM socket (novel idea, I'll give it that!)



DataCentre
=========
http://www.retroclinic.com/acorn/datacentre/datacentre.htm

For about the same price (depends on currency, but as I'm in the 
eurozone...), it's a substantial looking bit of kit. Nice to see all the 
leads and plugs provided, I was flabbergasted when my new USB printer 
came without a USB lead. WTF?!?
Now *there* is a board with a pleasing amount of I/O!

Features:
   * USB host
   * USB slave (or a second host?)
   * 1Mb RAMdisc
   * 64K Flash
   * 16 bit IDE interface (principally for CF card interface, but
     harddisc a possibility, perhaps CD as well?)


Assessment
I'm sorry, from where I'm standing, it looks like the one with more 
potential is the *other* one! Just look at the list of what it can do.


Put it like this - I'd have liked to see SD support. SD cards are 
everywhere. You practically cannot buy an MMC card in my local 
supermarket. You can, there are a few smallish capacity (256/512Mb) ones 
with the mobile phone chargers and microSD cards; but you'll find 
exactly zero MMC on the "memory cards" display.


I like the ingenious idea of how GoMMC fits into the system. It's kinda 
nifty.

But, sorry, I think for a comparable price (depends on EU shipping), I 
think the DataCentre has more going for it. It's a harddisc interface. 
It's a USB host.
Don't get me wrong here, I don't see an awful lot of point in keyboards 
and mice - for example the AMX mouse is not a system-wide device (the 
BBC MOS predates pointy-clicky computing), and I wonder how well a 
modern PC keyboard would integrate into a system expecting far fewer key 
options. Indeed, would it work at all with software that interrogates 
the system VIA to check for keypresses? It's a single-tasking computer, 
so software is fairly free to abuse the rules and the API and bitbash if 
it will gain a few microseconds here and there.
On the other hand, there is something the USB host does that has a *lot* 
going for it. The ability to read USB memory devices. These are ever 
popular and there's no need to worry about specific types of memory card 
when a generic USB device can be attached.


If you have the USB slave model, that can plug into a PC (or whatever) 
to permit stuff to be dropped on the RAMdisc, is this correct?
Can the files on the RAMdisc be then easily moved to the harddisc and/or 
the USB device on the host port?

Or, better yet, can you select which device to write to?


In any case, with the Datacentre I can see Googling stuff on the PC and 
going from download to running code on a Beeb in under a minute. You can 
argue it's not a very real-world plan; I would counter argue that my 
Acorn PocketBook II needs me to switch on Aiko and whap stuff across the 
intranet as Azumi has no serial port.
Confused? Wondering why I'm on about a PocketBook? It's simple. Lack of 
direct connectivity.

If I can plug a USB device into any of the machines I use commonly, and 
get stuff onto the Beeb, *that* is connectivity.

If I have to open the machine, fiddle with memory cards, and/or work out 
some sort of interface cable, that is *not* connectivity and it is only 
a step up from the current situation (TCP/IP to the A5000, A5000 is 
running awServer which Econet's to the Beeb).



Denouement
I still plan on buying neither as I don't make the kind of use of my BBC 
that would justify it. However if somebody gave me a hundred euros and 
said "blow it on something for one of your older computers", I know 
exactly which of the two options I'd get. I think it's obvious.



Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...